


Waiting Game

by navree



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Budding Love, Episode Tag, F/M, but also this is short and not that good, can't expect me to not write about this, don't come in here with high expectations, i just have emotions, ummmmmmmm icb jeronica saved this episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-19 23:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12420285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navree/pseuds/navree
Summary: Ironically, that made Jughead fight harder not to like her, because he was truly and deeply worried about what would happen if he grew to like her too much.Jughead wonders whether he should offer his insight to Veronica.





	Waiting Game

**Author's Note:**

> Two things: First of all, I'm in love with that jeronica interaction last episode and I need more, right now. Second of all, tell me in the comments whether any of you would be potentially interested in either a riverdale rewrite/jeronica slowburn or a jeronica anastasia au. or both!  
> as always, comments (either positive or constructive) are always welcome and much appreciated!

He isn't technically supposed to be here. He doesn't go to Riverdale High, and he might get kicked off for lurking in the halls. Hall, technically, seeing as most of his lurking is just slightly to the left of a class doorframe. Jughead lurks because he's having an internal debate with himself, deciding whether or not to pass by the classroom doorway again and intrude on what is likely a private and solitary thinking session. There are two veins of thought that are currently battling each other in that respect. 

The rational part of him says no. The rational part tells Jughead that it is none of his business what someone's thinking about, or worrying over, as long as it isn't directly involving him. He has bigger things to worry about right now. The town is essentially going to hell, and he's helpless to stop it. Fred Andrews was just shot. His own father might be going to prison. Pop's might be closing for good. Everything is going belly up, and Jughead, however much he might like to, doesn't really have time to care about other people's problems. Besides, does he even know Veronica that well to offer his opinion? Does he even know her at all?

The answer, coming to his mind, is a convoluted one. It's not precisely true that he doesn't know anything about Veronica, as much as he might like to think so. Jughead knows about her through the eyes of others, has seen her through Archie's misty eyes, has heard her through Betty's glowing praise. Despite his own reservations about her attitude and her particularly brand of self, he's still seen her through the eyes and ears and voices of his friends, and everything he's seen has been positive. 

Maybe that's why Jughead was so resistant to her, at first. He's never been one to just blindly follow the pack, and hearing everyone and their mother gush about how beautiful and witty and smile inducing Veronica Lodge was turned him off of ever even speaking to her beyond the casual hello. 

Then he had seen Veronica at Pop's. And everyone was right, she was beautiful. She was beautiful in that undefinable, eternal way that made him think of beauty in terms of gods and nature, not in terms of people. And she was witty, able to hold her own in a conversation with him so easily it felt like second nature. And she did make him smile, smile in a way that took him by surprise. Ironically, that made Jughead fight harder not to like her, because he was truly and deeply worried about what would happen if he grew to like her too much. 

So here he is now. In some bizarre limbo where he wasn't sure how much he knew Veronica, how much he liked Veronica. Because he does like her. Like everyone else, he thinks she's beautiful and witty and smart and funny and even nice when the occasion calls for it. And sometimes Jughead finds that she appears a little too often in his ongoing novel, especially for a girl who just moved to town a few months ago. All of this culminates in his nervous pacing by the door, wondering whether or not he should give Veronica his company or run for the hills. 

Jughead hesitates. He hesitates by the door because he doesn't know if he wants to talk to her; he hesitates by the door because he wants so badly to talk to her. He hesitates and he hesitates and he hesitates, which makes him want to hit something. This should be simple. Veronica is Betty's best friend and Archie's girlfriend, she's a part of their group and talking to her should be as natural as breathing. It shouldn't feel overly complicated; it shouldn't feel like trying to make sure the Jenga tower of various emotions doesn't come toppling down. 

Jughead should either want to talk to Veronica because she is his friend, or leave her alone because he simply cannot stand her. Jughead should not want to talk to her because it makes his heart hurt, or leave her alone because the sparkle in her eyes is much too similar to a star. And the rational part of his brain is still telling him that he is other problems, bigger problems, more important problems than Veronica Lodge, but the rest of him is telling him to push the lump in his throat back down, walk through that door, and be a friend to her, even if she appears to be the cause of a curious ache in the place where his ribcage splits in two separate pieces. 

Leave? Go? Jughead has had the answer all along, even as he's been debating himself. He makes his choice.

"I don't have red hair and broad shoulders." She looks up with startled sloe eyes, as if she truly hadn't heard the way he'd been pacing back and forth in the hallway. Maybe she hadn't. "Or a blond ponytail for that matter." Jughead hesitates, again, taking the time to try and gather himself, gather his thoughts and his emotions and try to be a supportive friend to someone who looks like she could really use one right about now. "Do you wanna talk?" His voice is embarrassingly soft, especially by his own harsh standards, but the look in Veronica's eyes is so grateful and so relieved that Jughead will take it not just once, but a thousand times over if he has to. 


End file.
